As early as 1500 BC, cheese was an established food. The Romans were very adept at making many different kinds of cheese. It is said that more than 600 kinds of Cheddar cheese are made in Britain alone. General, and later president of France, Charles de Gaulle said in 1962, “How can you govern a country which has 246 varieties of cheese?”
Just what would we do without cheese? No grilled cheese sandwiches, no mac and cheese, no pizza, the list is endless. Yet despite all of our “cheesy” favorite dishes, purchasing a cheese that is not shredded mozzarella, cheddar or Velveeta, seems to make usually calm people lose their cool. So many people have asked me questions about all the new varieties of cheeses that have turned up in supermarkets in recent years. In fact, a friend specifically asked me to write a “cheat sheet on cheese.” What a good idea! So, here goes.
This will not be a complete epistle on all the qualities and quantities of cheeses available to us today, either in markets or via the internet. Rather, I am going to give you a “Reader’s Digest” version of cheeses readily available in our area.
First, what are the general types of cheeses?
• Sheep’s milk, example - Feta Cheese
• Cow’s milk - example - Cheddar
• Goat’s milk - example - Cheve
Secondly, what about different varieties of cheeses?
- Cheddar, probably the most popular cheese, comes in a variety of different forms. Mild Cheddar has more fat, extra sharp cheddar has the least fat. Because of the fat content, or lack of it, the cheeses have very different tastes. Mild Cheddar used to top a casserole will have a distinct ooze of orange fat around the sides, while sharp will have a much less greasy appearance. It comes in two colors — orange and white. The only difference is the addition of annato, a natural food color to produce the orange color.
• Feta cheese, best known in Mediterranean cuisine, has a sharp and strong taste. It is popular in salads and on gyro sandwiches.
• Goat cheese, or Cheve (French for goat) has a wide variety of forms ranging from very stinky to super mild. An acquaintance of mine who makes some of the best goat cheese I’ve ever tasted — and in Walthall county — tells me that keeping the male goat in with the ladies causes the cheese to have a gamey taste. Some of the most popular goat cheeses are Montrachat, a mild, spreadable cheese which lends itself to flavoring with honey, fruit or different herbs; Bucheron, a semi—cured cheese formed by rolling the cheese in a straw mat to create ridges, the exterior of the cheese is crumbly and the center is soft; Humbolt Fog is a mold-ripened cheese from California with a thin line of ash in the middle.
• Blue cheeses are formed by the addition of mold spores to the cheese. Some molds occur naturally when the cheeses are aged in damp caves; others have molds added. The most popular of the added molds are Penicillium roqueforti and Penicillium glaucum. Blue cheeses are given bad press by being strong smelling and strong tasting. Actually, these things are what set blue cheeses apart. Blue cheese made in Denmark tends to be milder that French or English blues. One of my favorite blues is from Spain, called Valdeon. It is wrapped in grape leaves and aged. Blue cheeses are often an acquired taste, but once acquired, they are so delicious.
• Brie was developed as a soft-ripened cow’s milk cheese. It is usually ready to eat in about 6 weeks. Because it is a soft cheese, it must be refrigerated. When brie is over-ripe, it begins to smell of ammonia and should be thrown away. In recent years goat’s milk brie has become very popular. Sometimes referred to as “the little black dress of cheeses,” Brie is a very popular cheese for a cheese board. It pairs wonderfully with fruit. Often times the butterfat content of a brie will be doubled or even tripled. Triple cream cheeses, such as St. Andre, Explorateur, and Brillat-Savarin, are more like dessert because of their inherent richness.
Many years ago, before different cheeses were readily available, I ordered cheese for parties from a delightful man in New York, Ed Edelman. Mr. Edelman owned The Ideal Cheese Shop in Manhattan and was incredibly kind to a naive country girl from Mississippi. We became great telephone friends. He was a wonderful mentor, teaching me so much in our phone conversations. In 1987 he published the ultimate cheese book, Ideal Cheese, which in one volume summarizes his 43 years in the business.
I would tell Mr. Ed how many people I expected at a party, how many other dishes I was serving and a general demographic description of the guests. He would put a cheese board together for me, pack it himself, include the best cracker for that cheese and attach Post-it notes with instructions on how long to let the cheese set out to warm, exactly how to serve it and if it needed any garnish. One day Mr. Ed told me he was sending me a very special cheese. He said it was called a Triple Cream. His next comment has stayed with me forever; he said, “It tastes like sex on a cracker.” I have repeated that remark so many times over the last 30 years.
• Mozzarella is a white cheese that comes in two forms — aged and fresh. These two types bear no resemblance to each other. Fresh mozzarella was originally made from water buffalo milk in Italy over 500 years ago. The aged form generally comes in a plastic bag, already grated to be placed on Italian dishes. The fresh mozzarella is delicious in salads and is a principal ingredient in a Caprese salad (tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and fresh basil).
This discussion of cheese will be continued next week. Contact me at fwginn@gmail.com if you have cheese questions.
